What Darksiders III Could Have Been

Former Vigil creative director Joe Madureira has revealed what the next entry in the Darksiders franchise could have been if Vigil had maintained control. Speaking to IGN, Madureira explained that Vigil originally planned to add cooperative multiplayer for the sequel.

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It was always our hope to do a full four-player co-op game, with all four Horsemen playable.

“It was always our hope to do a full four-player co-op game, with all four Horsemen playable,” Madureira told IGN. “It’s possible we could have pulled it off. I would have liked to introduce Fury and Strife. I know many fans feel robbed that they never got to play the last two Horsemen."

"Story wise, we tossed around the idea of the Horsemen attacking Hell to challenge Lucifer," he continued. "And then taking the battle to the Charred Council to regain their freedom. Epic stuff. There was also an idea to do crazy ‘western’ type story, where the Horsemen are mortals after the rebirth of Mankind, sort of an alternate future. But neither idea got very far.”

Madureira also discussed technology and how it might have impacted the franchise. Even in the wake of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One’s announcements, he believes Darksiders was never limited by current-gen consoles, but that the planned third installment could have benefited from their power.

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The next one, had we introduced co-op, would have benefited from the power of the next generation of consoles.

“The biggest limiter for us was always scope, time, and money,” Madureira said. “I do think that it would be very difficult if not impossible to have four players running around simultaneously and maintain the level of graphic quality we achieved. So the next one, had we introduced co-op, would have benefited from the power of the next generation of consoles.”

Madureira confirmed that Crawler, the Vigil project revealed by court documents, was not a Darksiders-related project, though “at that point I’d already resolved to leave the studio, so I didn’t get involved much conceptually with the new IP.”

Looking ahead, Madureira comment on the acquisition of Darksiders by Nordic Games, which includes plans to publish games in the series but not develop them. As Nordic explores its options, we asked Madureira where he’d like to see the franchise end up and if he’d consider getting involved again.

“I’d love to see Vanillaware make a Darksiders 2D sidescroller,” he said. “I’m not sure how I feel about the Nordic purchase to be honest. I have sort of a ‘wait and see’ attitude about it, as I’m sure many people do. I’m not sure if I’d want to get involved with it or not. A lot of my love for the IP is also wrapped up in the people we had at the studio and the stuff we created together. But I’ve learned to never say never. If it’s cool, and I have time, I’d consider it. But my involvement couldn’t be what it was before. I’m moving on to new things right now.”